Governor would consider bad-charity crackdown

There was great rejoicing amongst O.C. firefighters on Sept. 5. 2001: Infamous telemarketer Mitch Gold – who had been raising millions in the name of disabled firefighters, but spending almost all of it on fundraising – had been indicted for charity fraud.

“We’re high-fiving because finally we put this knucklehead to rest,” said Joe Kerr, Orange County Professional Firefighters Association. “Once they put him in jail, we figured that was the end of it.”

But that wasn’t the end of it. A few days later, planes hit the Twin Towers in New York City. “The next thing we know, we’re getting a call from the district attorney in Brooklyn. ‘We have an Association for Firefighters and Paramedics soliciting funds for 9/11 victims. Does that have anything to do with you guys?’”

No, no, no, Kerr explained for what seemed like the thousandth time. The union’s charity had nothing whatsoever to do with the Santa Ana-based Association for Firefighters and Paramedics, which gave just pennies of every dollar to burn victims.

“They resurrected themselves,” Kerr said of the bad charity. “Same group, different players. We tried to get the Brooklyn D.A. to talk to the O.C. D.A. We tried to help tighten down some legislation. We went to the attorney general. We were told there was not a lot anyone could do. They’re walking the line, just skirting the law.”

And even after the state attorney general cracked down, suing the Association for Firefighters and Paramedics in 2009 and forcing it into a settlement agreement that involved years of official monitoring, the charity still collects millions and gives less than two cents of every dollar to the victims it purports to help.

“We’ve been on it, unsuccessfully, for 16 years,” Kerr said. “Our office gets scores to hundreds of phone calls every year from people inquiring, ‘Is this organization legit?’ Which it is not. Are they affiliated with us? No, they are not. We tell people that if someone is doing a phone solicitation, chances are they are not a legitimate firefighting organization. If they are asking you to leave a check on your doorstep, we advise you strongly against doing it.”

So, after all these years, should the power of the great state of California be brought more firmly to bear on charities that exist mainly to line fundraisers’ pockets? Is this not an issue of consumer protection as much as anything else?

“Absolutely,” Kerr said. “Something has to be done. They are preying on the good intentions of people who believe they’re contributing to community firefighters injured or killed in the line of duty. In our opinion, that’s fraudulent. We think the law should be severely tightened.”

WE AGREE

Oregon passed a law in June – the first of its kind in the nation – that will simply yank state and local tax exemptions from charities that devote more than 70 percent of their spending to management and fundraising over a three-year period.

Florida is looking at something like this, too. The Sunshine State’s consumer services commissioner is asking state lawmakers to support increased fines, mandatory background checks for telemarketing employees, and a requirement that charities spend at least 25 percent of donations on those in need, or risk losing their state tax exemption.

Florida’s commissioner also wants the power to deny licenses to charities or solicitors banned by other states and to immediately suspend charities engaging in fraud.

So our question to California lawmakers is simply this: If they can try it in Oregon and Florida, why can’t we try it here?

We are in the process of reaching out to every legislator in the Golden State in an attempt to get this question answered, and Kerr has vowed to bring the firefighters’ perspective to lawmakers as well. Early and off-the-record reaction in Sacramento indicates that the problem is well-known, and there might be some resolve stirring to combat it if we keep banging our heads against the wall long enough.

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